Death Cemetery

Death Cemetery was the legendary holy ground of necromancers, and the place everyone had dreamed of finding on this journey to the Dark Forest. After surveying his surroundings in every direction and recalling Fanny's earlier account, Han Shuo could now be certain that this was the legendary Death Cemetery.

No wonder Han Shuo had vaguely sensed something familiar here earlier. It was because he also practiced Necromancy. This area contained powerful magical fluctuations of death energy, as well as the scent given off by some of the bones concealed by illusions. These were all things Han Shuo knew extremely well.

After carefully examining the entire area, Han Shuo frowned and thought, According to the rumors, everyone who saw Death Cemetery ended up dead. Now that I'm standing here, should I go inside or not?

Death Cemetery had once been where powerful necromancers studied Necromancy during its golden age. Later, all those mages had died, and Death Cemetery had vanished without a trace.

However, since Death Cemetery had once been a place where those necromancers conducted their research, it was bound to hold some secrets of Necromancy. To Han Shuo, a novice who had only just entered the world of magic, this was an enormous temptation, forcing him to carefully consider whether he should take the risk.

After a long moment, Han Shuo's expression hardened with resolve. He began stepping over the stark white bones toward Death Cemetery. Once he had taken several steps and entered deeper into the area, the dark green orb hanging high in the air suddenly dropped back into the Jade Box. The green light throughout the area instantly vanished without a trace.

Han Shuo froze and looked around in surprise. He discovered that the outer reaches of his field of vision had changed again, returning to what he had seen when he first arrived. Only the area surrounding Death Cemetery, all the way to the ground beneath his feet, remained a dark landscape of death.

Looking at the orb in his hand, Han Shuo understood that it must be something crucial to Death Cemetery. It seemed capable of revealing the cemetery. The entire place appeared to be shrouded within a concealing barrier. Looking at this area from outside, no one could detect anything strange or unusual, and it would draw no one's attention.

With this orb, however, Death Cemetery's true appearance could be revealed, enveloping the entire cemetery in its actual desolation and deathly silence.

The white bones beneath Han Shuo's feet crunched as he walked. The sudden sound amid the deathly silence made his skin crawl. Fortunately, his Demonic Cultivation Art had just broken through the Solid Body realm, giving him courage from some unknown source. He actually headed straight toward Death Cemetery without turning back.

After a long while, Han Shuo finally stood before Death Cemetery. A circular moat surrounded the entrance, filled with inky-black water. A small bridge made of black threads and white bones spanned the moat in lonely isolation.

Without hesitating, Han Shuo clutched the Jade Box holding the orb and stepped onto the bone bridge with some trepidation, slowly approaching Death Cemetery's entrance. The bridge swayed, leaving him slightly unsteady on his feet. He did not know what lay in the moat below, but a single glance sent a chill through him. He kept feeling that its stagnant, inky-black water was extremely dangerous.

When Han Shuo stepped onto the bone bridge, the orb inside the Jade Box began emitting its strange green light again. It was like some miraculous remedy for the swaying. Once the orb released its green light, the rocking bone bridge strangely stopped moving, and the connections between the black threads and bones seemed to become incredibly strong in an instant.

At last, Han Shuo reached the entrance. Before the two grayish-brown doors, made from some unknown material, stood the towering skeletal remains of two Evil Knights and their warhorses, one set on either side.

Evil Knights were exceptionally powerful fighters among dark creatures. A necromancer below Archmage Level could forget about summoning one. From the towering skeletons of the two Evil Knights before the entrance and the forms of their warhorses, Han Shuo could already vaguely judge that these two must have been outstanding specimens.

Intricate magical patterns covered the two grayish-brown doors. At the center, where the doors met, was a round recess whose shape suggested it was meant for the key that opened them.

Just then, the Green Sphere Han Shuo held suddenly shot a beam of green light directly into the round recess between the doors. Realization struck him, and he immediately understood what was going on. Without hesitation, he held up the Jade Box, brought the orb toward the recess, and slowly fitted it inside.

Throughout this process, Han Shuo never touched the orb with his hands. He understood that it was certainly no ordinary object. He had no idea whether contact with his flesh might cause some harmful change, so he avoided touching it directly as much as possible.

Once the orb fitted into the recess, a rumble sounded, and the doors abruptly swung apart with a creak. As they opened, the recess automatically split apart. The orb that had been inserted into it remained unchanged inside the Jade Box.

The interior was dim. As the doors opened, dust drifted out, making Han Shuo cough several times before he steadied himself and began examining everything inside.

Inside Death Cemetery was a hall, with six rooms whose doors were closed around its perimeter. The hall was immense, roughly the size of a basketball court, with an extraordinarily high ceiling. At its center was a huge Hexagram Magic Array, eighty or ninety percent similar to the Magic Arrays Han Shuo had used in Zachius City and at the Babylon Academy of Magic and Martial Arts. Ancient, simple magical patterns were drawn in the center of the Hexagram Magic Array.

Apart from this Hexagram Magic Array, the hall was empty, with only a few magical stone pillars supporting the enormous structure and some broken bones in the corners.

A strong stench of decay hung in the air. Han Shuo stood at the entrance for a while, and only after he felt the odor gradually dispersing through the open doors did he slowly walk inside.

Apart from the Hexagram Magic Array, the hall contained only its towering ceiling and the six rooms with closed doors, each corresponding to one of the hexagram's six points. After entering and searching the hall without finding anything valuable, Han Shuo immediately focused his attention on the six rooms with their doors ajar.

One, two, three...

After making his way through all six rooms, Han Shuo still came away empty-handed. Judging by their layout, he could tell that they were merely six storerooms, but there was nothing in them now.

Returning to the hall, Han Shuo began recalling what he knew. From Fanny's earlier words and his own observations outside just now, he gradually remembered that only a small portion of Death Cemetery stood aboveground. The larger part lay buried deep underground. Its real secrets must have been hidden beneath Death Cemetery.

Yet after searching the entire hall and all six rooms, Han Shuo had found no passage or stairway leading underground. This left him deeply puzzled, and he sank into thought again.

After thinking for a long time, Han Shuo still felt that the orb in his hand must be the key. He immediately stood up and made another inspection of the entire hall and all six rooms.

Finally, in the corner of one room, Han Shuo discovered another recess. Delighted, he placed the orb inside. A rumbling sounded, and a dark passage suddenly split open in the room's wall. On the passage's first step lay six gleaming silver rods made of a strange material that was neither stone nor wood. Both ends of each rod seemed to have joints, as though the six rods could be assembled together.

Apart from the six rods, there was only a thin sheet of paper with some hurried writing in an ancient magical script. Han Shuo picked up the thin sheet.

After carefully reading the magical script, Han Shuo understood that the six Magic Wands could be assembled into a hexagram, allowing direct teleportation to and from the Magic Array in the hall. He also learned that a barrier guarded the passage's entrance, making entry impossible without sufficient Mental Power.

Beyond that, Han Shuo could glean no other useful information from the thin sheet of paper.

After a moment's thought, Han Shuo gathered up the six Magic Wands and began walking down the passage with a frown. An invisible barrier suddenly appeared. A green ripple flashed and violently hurled him away. Throughout this, Han Shuo felt an extraordinary pain in his head. He thought, What the paper said was true. My Mental Power must be too weak for me to enter the passage and reach the underground structure.

Cursing under his breath, Han Shuo followed the instructions on the sheet and connected the six Magic Wands, arranging them into a hexagram on the room's floor. He then stood inside this miniature Magic Array and poured in his Mental Power to activate it. A white light flashed, and Han Shuo appeared inside the large Magic Array in the hall.

Using the same method, Han Shuo poured his Mental Power into the teleportation array in the hall. After activating it, he returned to the spot in the previous room where he had laid out the miniature Hexagram Magic Array.

After frowning in thought for a moment, Han Shuo understood that he would not be able to enter the passage and explore the depths of Death Cemetery anytime soon. Fortunately, he had obtained the six Magic Wands. Together with the orb, they would make it extremely convenient for him to enter this place from anywhere. This delighted Han Shuo, who already regarded the place as his secret base.

Since he could not uncover its secrets for now, Han Shuo had no intention of staying. After considering things for a while, he bundled up the six Magic Wands and slung them onto his back, put the thin sheet into his pocket, and left Death Cemetery in the same manner, carrying the Jade Box.

Once Han Shuo had safely emerged, he looked back and found the scene exactly as it had been when he first arrived. The tall weeds and shrubs and the lush, towering trees remained unchanged. His surroundings were still deathly quiet.

With a satisfied smile on his face, Han Shuo knew that his journey to the Dark Forest could be considered over for the time being.

Through sheer good fortune, he had stumbled upon the legendary Death Cemetery. Its secrets would belong to him, not to anyone else, including the teachers and students of the Necromancy Department.